Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Nothing to do with wine, or the bodega, more just an observation from my recent travels around the UK.

Now, I often moan about the traffic and bad driving here in Spain, not to mention the latest toy of the local traffic police.... the dreaded speed camera, but the UK is now in a different league altogether!

Having driven the length and breadth of the UK over the last week I was truly shocked by the number of cameras that you see along the way. Not just fixed cameras that snap your photo as you drive past, but also the new-fangled 'average speed cameras' that calculate your average speed over long sections of the motorway.

I did not actually witness it myself, but I am also given to understand that the majority of UK town and city centres are now filled with surveillance cameras, whereby you can hardly take a step outside without being monitored. Talk about Orwell's 1984, it really has become very intrusive.

But wait just a moment - perhaps I can actually top this story! The Kent police, in the south east of England, are now considering using unmanned drones that will fly at 20,000ft to record all your misdemeanors without you even knowing it (assuming that the weather is good, and it's not too cloudy!)